[extropy-chat] HISTORY: Solv... Open the pod door pls Hal

[Brett Paatsch]

Spike writes:

> > 
> > Hal Finney writes:
> > 
> > > I believe (sic) that ordinary air, if compressed within the lungs,
> > > will dissolve to a greater degree in the blood, so the bends are
> > > possible even if you don't breathe compressed air.
> 
> Altho there would be *some* notrogen dissolved from the
> lungs of the diving whale, it isn't enough to produce
> either the bends or narcosis.
> 
> > Why do you use the word *believe* here Hal instead of a clear
> > alternative?... to consider your use of the
> > *belief* word and thereby propagating it, and to let the stink out.
> > 
> > Regards - for you but not for brain-farting,
> > Brett
> 
> Brett, I don't get this.  No need
> to explain, I just don't get it.

No need not to get it Spike. 

My point is that *believe* is a bad word to use and that there are
real consequences of using (and by using propagating) it when 
there are any number of better ones that more clearly map to
a valid referent. 

I did make a mistake changing the word *believe* to *belief* 
above it should have been *believe* all the way through for
clarity. However the words *believe* and *belief* would 
almost certainly derive from the same root. 

http://thesaurus.reference.com/search?q=belief

Shows words (synonyms) that are faith based mixed in with
words that are theory or science based.  Memetically this
is a *very* unfortunate coupling. By using the word belief
listeners can get the impression that science and theory are
pretty much the same as faith-based worldviews.

If anyone can find the etymology of the word "belief" or 
"believe" I would be interested. I am also interested in 
seeing if non-English and non-Slavic languages also have 
a word that fills the same space as "belief". I am wondering 
if at some point the religion memeset jumped over to mix 
itself in with the scientific/rational one or if rather scientists 
in using words to talk to each other did not fully appreciate
the need to get right away from words like belief that map 
to uncertain referents and have religious faith-based 
connotations.  

Regards,
Brett